Once Upon a December
by Kamisora
Summary: Relena hears a music box, and gets a brief glimpse into her long forgotten past.


Dancing bears, painted wings.

Things I almost remember.

And a song someone sings,

once upon a December.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ A cold wind whistled through the snow laden trees.ྭ Relena huddled into her jacket as she tried to escape the bitter cold.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ :Almost home.: she thought with relief.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ Faint traces of an ancient song blew about on the whims of the wind.ྭ Relena froze, a tiny frown appearing on her face.ྭ Her eyes looked haunted as a faded wisp of memory teased her.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Where have I heard that song before?" she wondered without realizing that she was speaking out loud.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ Drawn by the sweet melody, Relena found herself standing outside a beautiful mansion.ྭ A music box was nestled in the window.ྭ Relena stared at the carousel of brightly painted horses and dancing bears in fascination.

Someone holds me safe and warm.

Horses prance through a silver storm.

Figures dancing gracefully,

across my memory...

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ The winter world faded away, leaving Relena lost in fragments of memory.ྭ She was in a brightly lit ballroom.ྭ Music was playing in the background while couples danced all around her.ྭ The ornate decorations and gentle laughter were very real, but there was a dream-like quality to the beautiful scene.ྭ She watched as a young child descended a flight of stairs, and was met by a boy who looked to be about 7 or 8.ྭ The boy smiled brilliantly, and his blue eyes twinkled with delight as he swept the young girl into a dance.ྭ All around them, adults stopped dancing to watch the children indulgently.ྭ Silver glitter filled the air and swirled around the people, making it look as though they were dancing in a silver snow storm.

Someone holds me safe and warm.

Horses prance through a silver storm.

Figures dancing gracefully,

across my memory...

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ A man and woman approached the children sedately.ྭ The boy saw them first, and bowed to them as custom dictated.ྭ The girl giggled in delight, and threw herself into the man's arms.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Dance with me, Daddy!" she cried happily.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ The man tried to look stern, but a smile twinkled in his eyes.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Of course, little one.ྭ Your wish is my command."

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ The man picked the little girl up, and twirled her around the room.ྭ The boy watched them for a long moment.ྭ Then he bowed again, and offered his arm to the woman.ྭ She took it with a smile, and let the boy lead them into the center of the dance floor.ྭ The young girl watched the boy dance with the woman from her father's arms.ྭ She felt safe, and warm, and loved by everyone around her.

Far away, long ago.

Glowing dim as an ember.

Things my heart used to know

Things it yearns to remember...

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ Relena sighed as the ballroom faded away, leaving her in the cold winter street.ྭ The whole episode had seemed like a dream...and yet at the same time it had been too vivid, too real to be a dream.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ /It was almost like a...memory?ྭ But how can that be?ྭ I've been to balls before, but nothing like that.ྭ Nothing that...perfect.ྭ Those people were all so beautiful.ྭ Like royalty.ྭ I definitely would have remembered them more clearly if I had really ever met them.ྭ Wouldn't I?ྭ So why am I so convinced that little girl was...me/ Relena wondered.

And a song someone sings,

once upon a December.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ Relena smiled ruefully.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ /What would that boy...Heero, think of me if he saw me standing here like this/ she chided herself.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ /Heero...who are you, really?ྭ Where did you come from, and why were you on the beach yesterday?ྭ Will I ever be able to understand you?ྭ Maybe I'll be able to if we get to know each other.ྭ I'll invite you to my birthday party.ྭ Maybe we'll get a chance to talk, then./

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ Relena walked briskly toward her house, with new resolve in her eyes.ྭ She wanted to get home and write up an invitation for Heero.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭ /I hope you can come, Heero.ྭ I have the feeling that you will become very important to me.ྭ That just knowing you will change me somehow.ྭ And maybe...just maybe...you will lead me to the white haired boy in that ballroom./

The song Once Upon a December is not mine. It can be found on the Anastasia soundtrack.


End file.
